A free-to-play competitive MOBA game with a large following in eSports. From the original developers of DotA: Allstars, the game expands the gameplay found in DotA by adding persistent Summoner profiles and a variety of original champions who fight for you on the battlefield against bots or one another.

Huge Harrowing Update

Brace yourselves, huge update(s) will hit soon, and all of that in the spirit of Harrowing. First, we have a new champion that will join the League, that is Elise, the Spider Queen. Then, a new and improved version of Twisted Treeline is coming out soon as well. And last but not least, a whole NEW MAP is coming out, some sinister place called Shadow Isles.

New skins will also soon be available, and a new addition to the League, skins for wards (That will go with the new art direction of the Shadow Isles and can be purchased with IP) and new summoner icons.

@valrog: It probably isn't a new map. It could be a halloween skin for one of the maps or it may just be the new Twisted Treeline. Riot already complains about how it's impossible to balance the champions with the 3 maps they have and have heavily hinted that they have no intention of ever releasing a new map.

@Hunkulese: Oh, right. It does look a lot like the new Twisted Treeline, but if that was the case, why give it a new name and act like it's a new thing entirely? Honestly, I wouldn't mind if it's just Summoner's Rift in different style (Also, if they just used the Summoner's Rift template, they could create a lot of maps without breaking the "balance").

I guess we'll see in time, but I hope that it won't be a holiday restricted like Harrowing Summoner's Rift and snowy Summoner's Rift.

I should start playing LoL again. I stopped due to the community, but I think the scars they gave me are beginning to heal. I really loved playing with friends, so this may be a great time to drop back in.

If I still played League of Legends and still had friends who played League of Legends, I would be all up on this. Sadly, neither of those are true and playing out-of-practice, by myself, with teams consisting of the worst people imaginable does not tickle my fancy one bit.

1. @valrog: The Shadow Isles are a particular region within the world in League of Legends, much like Demacia, Noxus, and Ionia. It's the home of Yorick, Mordekaiser, Karthus, Evelynn, Hecarim, and now Elise.

2. Twisted Treeline is not just getting a new look, but it is being completely reworked. The overall changes should allow for more champs to be viable in 3s matches while also allowing it to be on the same competitive level as Summoner's Rift.

3. As Riot has confirmed through Reddit, this is the first in many massive updates coming for the game. They are also doing the following: reworking the entire rune system, reworking the mastery tree, new items and removing old outdated items, offering more item capabilities and build capabilities for support characters (as they've said they like the 0 CS metagame for supports), changing up the jungle in order to open up the possibilities of even more champs being able to jungle, and skins that go beyond just the champs themselves (as we're seeing with the ward skins in the Harrowing update).

@Sooty: Riot typically caps the downloads in order to make sure that it doesn't mess with their servers. Otherwise, trolls could be assholes and just uninstall/redownload constantly to fuck with the connection in games.

@ArbitraryWater: Things are actually getting better. With the introduction of the Honor system, I've had FAAAAAR less problems than before. Dare I say it - the community is actually using teamwork in the majority of my games...and then generally listen to pings...and don't troll as much. It's actually pretty nice. Don't get me wrong: there are still headstrong fuckstains in the game, but those are being weeded out pretty regularly now.

@connerthekewlkid: I actually haven't played Maokai since the Christmas skins because I was so incredibly upset at how shitty that Festive Maokai was. I'm hoping they didn't fuck up Haunted Maokai. If so, then he's going to be staying on reserve. Honestly, I like playing Sejuani more. Too bad everything thinks she's so terribad for some damn reason. = /

Update is cool, but I don't like that the ward skins aren't permanent and will (as of right now) be removed after the event ends. It's stupid, especially since some of them will only be available through RP, so after Harrowing ends, you won't have anything for your money.

Other than that, great new changes. Zombie Brand looks incredible (with Thriller dance) and I'm in desperate need of a good Maokai skin. Too bad it doesn't look like they bring back last year's skins, I need the Nidalee skin (because it's a new model and not the blocky default one) and Definitely Not Blitzcrank.

Also, as has been pointed out, the Shadow Isles are just a part of Runeterra and I seem to remember Riot wanting to push this region of their world a bit more. That's probably why they have that teaser site with champs from the Shadow Isles.

@BenderUnit22: From what I've read you can only buy the ward skins during the halloween event then when you activate them they only last a week, but you can stock up on enough to last a whole year by buying 50 odd in one go (which is their great hope) and then activating one each week.